Newt Gingrich is very articulate and generally does a great job making the conservative case, but his past martial infidelities make him a non-starter as a conservative Republican candidate. For example, my wife, a conservative Republican has something negative to say about him every time she see him because of his cheating on his wife. Further, recently got involved in New York 23rd Congressional district when he came out in support in support of Republican in Name Only (a very liberal Republican with a history of stabbing conservatives in the back) over a viable third-party conservative candidate who had a real good chance of winning and would have been a far more reliable Republican/Conservative vote. Bottom line is that Newt...

Good Job. A nice ad hominem argument with no substance and no thought and no evidence of any ability to contribute intelligently to the discussion. Anyone not drinking the kool-aid knows the teacher unions control over public education is the number one impediment to improving education. This includes the millions of dollars they spend each and every year to keep control of the state legislatures to defend sorry status quo. Chuck Norris has it absolutely right. A great book on this by the Brooking Institute is Politics, Markets and America's schools. Nice non-partisan analysis of factors that contribute to school effectiveness.

The free market in conjunction with our legal system and in conjunction with a churched, self-governing people has created a society that has provided more prosperity to more people than any other country in the history of the world. So a thriving market is a necessary condition to have a thriving prosperous / opportunity society, but by itself is not sufficient. My point is that the market is a human system subject to corruption like any other human systems and thus needs checks and balances. It is this understanding of human nature that formed the foundation for our government, not some Libertarian view that presents the "Market" as all good and all powerful. That my friend is Libertarianism, not Conservatism. ...

Dennis, i totally concur with your analysis, however, this unwillingness to accept/see reality also has a hold in the Republican Party, particularly among utopian-minded Libertarians who are willing to attribute to the "Market" God-like powers despite overwhelming evidence, past and present, that the market, like any other human system, can be manipulated, corrupted, does not always maximize the good, and in fact readily accommodates really bad and evil things. This ideologically driven view of the world has led to some real bad trade policy over the last 15-20 years that has allowed China to wage a ruthless and successful trade war against a United States that refuses to acknowledge there is even a war and as a consequence is being...